


New Year's Eve

by beccaelizabeth



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: M/M, New Year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-01-01
Updated: 2005-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-06 09:27:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beccaelizabeth/pseuds/beccaelizabeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The great thing about worshiping Janus was you could fulfil your religious obligations at the same time as being part of the year's biggest party.</i></p><p>Ethan meditates on the passage of time.  <br/>Warm and fuzzy ficlet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Year's Eve

The great thing about worshipping Janus was you could fulfil your religious obligations at the same time as being part of the year's biggest party.

In the living room assorted guests were gathered to greet the new year. Ethan could tell it was a good party - he didn't recognise half the people there, and it was his house. Invited guests and crashers alike were making merry, with the assistance of liberal libations.

Ethan was not among them. As midnight approached, he went up to the bedroom - carefully warded against intrusion - and sat before the altar there. Janus looked back at him, young and old. So, as he did every year, Ethan thought about the passage of time.

He used to see himself in the younger face, smiling, care free. Beautiful, powerful, and loved. He and Ripper were going to take on the world and win. The older face seemed like a warning - do everything now, tomorrow could look like this.

Now, the older face of Janus could have been a mirror. Deep lines, hard won, a face that had seen and been and yet still laughed. Not least at his younger self, who had feared what he would become.

He watched the faces flicker and change in the candlelight, sat back and thought about the two of them. About the worlds they'd taken on, and what it meant to win.

The bedroom door opened behind him, but he didn't need to look around. Only one other person could step through it tonight. The one who sat beside him now and put his arms around him.

"Nearly midnight."

"Yes. And nearly His day."

"So I've got you to myself for a few minutes more."

"A few minutes, a few years. Janus doesn't mind. He smiles on his favoured."

"He smiles at everything, Ethan. I always thought he was taking the piss."

Ethan laughed and leaned back into his lover's arms. "Maybe. Or he could just be laughing at us, for taking so long."

Ripper grinned and pulled him closer. "He's a god of beginnings and endings. He must have loved us, every time we broke it off or started up again."

"He loves it more, now we two are become one."

Ripper looked down into Ethan's eyes, not grinning now, but smiling fondly. From downstairs the countdown started, but the two of them didn't bother to wait. They kissed, knowing they'd still be kissing at midnight, and long after.


End file.
